Shopping in the narrow gullies of Mumbai...

To start with, I am not a GUCCI or PRADA guy, even if I would be found frequently hanging around a MALL, buying some cheap stuff that I don't really need :). Frankly, I very much HATE the MALL culture, but choose to live with it.

I am not very sure about others, but if you are a GUJARATI person living in Mumbai, and would like to do some feminine shopping in bulk, you do not hit a MALL, but you head to south Mumbai, into the narrow streets of Zaveri Bazaar (for Jewellery), Hanumaan Gali and Bhuleshwar(for clothes), and other adjacent streets, for anything and everything.

These streets are really old, narrow, and not-so-clean. Buying stuff from the stalls, would give the first time spectator a feeling that you are buying some cheap stuff off the road, as the shop would not be equipped with four walls an air-conditioner, or even a fan for that matter. But only if someone were to tell you that these wholesale dealers are the same people who deliver the goods in the elite shopping malls of Andheri or Bandra, would he/she really belive it? No, you may not! But then I wondered why I didn't otherwise see any manufacturing factory, of say, Sala Liketan.

We surpassed some utensils shop, which was really of insignificant size and shape and it looked like the owner might be just smart to make his two ends meet. But he actually turned out to be the sponsor for all the benches, and related furniture for all the municipal schools in vicinity. Great, ain't he? We had a look at where the very famous garment owner (name witheld), who would earn in crores, lived! It was really just a shanty place.

We then visited an atleast 50years old UDIPI place, which was again a very shabby place. But only if you would have had his wada, dosa, and especially chutney (coconut, and morogapuddi), you would have exclaimed it ONE OF THE BEST SOUTH INDIAN CUISINE you would have ever had!

All such historic places and its importance, made me wonder - do the best of businesses flourish in such quiet/shanty/shabby places? And would you, as a consumer rather sweat and buy something off the unclean roads? Or would the MALL culture eventually take you over?

P.S.:
Well, I also happened to see the hangout places, where my parents used to meet during their pre-married days ;)

Today, after a long time, I had the privilege to walk through the narrow streets of Mumbai again. We covered Davaa Bazaar, Zaveri Bazaar, Hanumaan Gali, Panjra Pol, CP Tank and a few other narrow gullies, which I do not remember, and I simply loved it :) If you've been in and around in Mumbai, and still have not paid a visit to these places, I am sorry, but you are YET to SEE Mumbai! This is not an overstatement, it very much remains a fact!